It is well known in the prior art to provide a printed circuit board (sometimes called “mother board”) with one or more connector(s) (called “edge” connectors) for use in connecting thereto, additional printed circuit boards (called “cards”) that support thereon various circuitry (e.g. flash memory). One such prior art module 20 as illustrated in FIG. 1 includes a card 22 with a connector 21 located at a front edge 22F. Card 22 in FIG. 1 has a thickness of Zcard and has mounted thereon one or more electronic components, such as an integrated circuit chip 23. Chip 23 is typically mounted on card 22 between connector 21 and a back edge 22K on either a bottom surface 22B or a top surface 22T of card 22. In addition to edges 22F and 22K described above, card 22 has a left edge 22L and a right edge 22R that are separated from one another in the X direction by a distance Xcard, which forms the width of module 20. Bottom surface 22B of card 22 is separated in the Z direction from bottom surface 21B of connector 21 by a distance Zconnector. Card 22 may be used with a mother board (not shown) by moving it in the Y direction until connector 21 mates with a corresponding connector (not shown) on the mother board.
One prior art example of module 20 is a memory module shown in FIGS. 1B-1D that includes flash memory (e.g. 25 GB) in the form of integrated circuit 23 (FIG. 1C) which forms a solid state drive or any other non-volatile memory mounted on a printed circuit board 22 in a component area 34 (FIG. 1B). The memory is electrically connected by traces of conductive material (not shown) to an interface connector 21 (FIG. 1C) in the connector area 32 (FIG. 1B). Connector 21 includes a first group of traces 21P (e.g. fifteen traces) that carry power signals (also called “power group”) which are physically spaced apart from a second group of traces 21D (e.g. seven traces) that carry data signals (also called “data group”). Module 20 may conform to, for example, the Form Factor Standard “JEDEC MO-297A” which is available for download at www.jedec.org. Hence, module 20 has a width D1 of 54 mm, length D2 of 39.82 mm and thickness D6 of 4 mm as shown in FIGS. 1B-1D. Module 20 includes a connector 21 that conforms to SATA, which is a specification entitled “Serial ATA International Organization: Serial ATA Revision 2.6” available for downloaded on the Internet at www.sata-io.org. SATA Working Group is an organization set up by a number of companies such as APT Technologies Inc, Dell Computer Corporation, International Business Machines, Intel Corporation, Maxtor Corporation, Quantum Corporation, and Seagate Technology.
It is known in the prior art to provide a hook in a host connector on a mother board. Such a prior art hook on the mother board is typically used with a push button ejector. However, multiple parts (such as a hook and an ejector) that move relative to one another result in mechanical failures. Accordingly, the inventor of the current patent application believes there is a need for improvements of the type described below.